Japanese support environment tax

Nearly 80 percent of people who responded to an Internet survey said they support the proposed introduction of an environmental tax which would levy an average of 180 yen per month on each household, the Environment Ministry said Sunday.

The tax, which the ministry hopes to introduce in fiscal 2006, would generate 370 billion yen in annual revenue to finance measures against global warming, such as forestation, according to the ministry.

White House spokesperson on environmental issues, Freon J. Bilgewater, said any such tax in the US would "hurt corporate profits" and put an "unfair burden on the wealthy" whose wealth could not then "trickle down to the peasants, er, public." The press conference was then disrupted by members of a radical Left group who shouted that trickle down was akin to being "peed on."